Lebanese MP accuses Hezbollah of assassinations

Fadi al-Haber of the Kataeb faction says Iran's Shi'ite proxy also providing military support to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Hezbollah supporters in Beirut 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS)
Hezbollah supporters in Beirut 311 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS)
A Lebanese Christian MP accused Hezbollah on Wednesday of involvement in political assassinations in Lebanon, including the 2005 murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Kataeb faction MP Fadi al-Haber also blamed the Iranian-backed Shi’ite terror group for the killing of former Lebanese MP Gebran Ghassan Tueni in a Beirut car bombing in December 2005. Tueni was also the former editor of Lebanese daily an-Nahar.
Speaking to Kuwaiti daily al-Seyassah, Haber said that “all of the assassination attempts that have taken place [in Lebanon] were coordinated between Hezbollah and Syria.”
“It’s clear that Hezbollah was ordered to carry out a number of assassinations,” Haber was quoted as saying.
He noted that last year, the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon had indicted four Hezbollah officials over Hariri’s murder. The organization has refused to hand over the four men.
The Lebanese lawmaker also accused Hezbollah of working with Iran to provide military support to Syrian president Bashar Assad’s forces.
Haber added that cooperation between Hezbollah, Iran and Syria is not new. Since its inception, Hezbollah has been led by Iranian strategy, and there is evidence that Iran and Hezbollah are providing military support for Assad in Syria, Haber said.
The Lebanese MP’s remarks come a day after another Lebanese politician, Butros Harb, and members of Tueni’s family, filed a lawsuit against two Syrian officers allegedly implicated in Tueni’s assassination. Harb has asked the special tribunal to look into the matter.
The two Syrians named in the lawsuit are Brig. Hassan Abdel-Rahman and Brig.-Gen. Saqr Manoun. Their names were revealed last week by the pan-Arab al-Arabiya news outlet, claiming to have obtained a leaked copy of a classified Syrian intelligence document from May 2011, which discussed Hezbollah’s involvement in Tueni’s killing.
Al-Arabiya said the document contained a missive sent to Assad from Col. Saqr Manoun of Hezbollah’s Air Force Intelligence, stating that 250 Hezbollah operatives had arrived in Syria’s Aleppo province. Another document dated 12 December 2005 – the same day as Tueni’s assassination – allegedly said that Syria had successfully carried out a mission with Hezbollah’s help.
According to a report in an-Nahar on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has said that the tribunal’s prosecutor would first need to present sufficient evidence to a pre-trial judge in order for the case to proceed.
Hezbollah has denied the allegations regarding Tueni’s assassination, stating earlier this week that they were fabricated by “Syrian opposition activists” and the “Saudi media network al-Arabiya.”